Bolzano/Bozen 23-26 June 2026

Image credit: Eurac Research | Marion Lafogler

IPSA RESEARCH COMMITTEES COLLOQUIUM 23-26 JUNE 2026

Eurac Research, Bolzano/Bozen, Italy

Minorities Under Siege? 

Plural Societies Facing Plural Challenges

Hosted by the Institute for Minority Rights and the Center for Autonomy Experience of Eurac Research and organised by IPSA RC14 Politics AND Ethnicity in collaboration with 

RC13 Democratization in Comparative Perspective, RC16 Socio-Political Pluralism, RC23 Elections, Citizens and Parties, RC28 Comparative Federalism and Multilevel Governance, RC43 Religion and Politics, RC44 Security, Conflict and Democratization, RC50 The Politics of Language and RC53 Indigenous Politics

You will find specific information under the following links in due course:   

Registration @@ Travel info @@ Local info @@ Programme @@ FAQ

This year’s IPSA Research Committees colloquium organised by RC14 Politics and Ethnicity is titled 'Minorities Under Siege?' and aims to explore the evolving and multifaceted challenges facing minority community members, their identities, cultures, religions and rights, in contemporary states, embedded within the changing normative and globally interconnected context. The notion of being ‘under siege’ is used as a powerful lens to examine the pressures, vulnerabilities and systemic threats that minorities face in an increasingly volatile world.

We welcome papers on all aspects of politics of and in ethnically plural societies, and encourage particular attention to four broad topics.

First, the colloquium organisers encourage consideration of the effects that global socio-economic changes, together with the rise of populist and re-nationalising movements, are having on long-standing framework agreements, institutions of accommodation and practices of minority protection, federalism and decentralisation, in plural societies. This political dynamic often foregrounds national majorities' interests and prioritises state sovereignty at the expense of diversity accommodation and minority inclusion; the effects of eroding connections between citizens and their representatives are particularly visible in electoral run-offs. We are also interested in how federal institutions and federalisation processes are working to protect the interests of ethnic and regional minorities in the face of such political dynamics, whether in established federations such as the US and India, or in developing federal systems, such as those in Myanmar and Papua New Guinea/Bougainville.

Second, we seek papers that address the precarious position of minorities in locations and situations of conflict. Given the attention that is often generated by the plight of the many, individuals and groups on the margins of society in such conflict situations tend to be overlooked and their needs oftentimes neglected. While in some cases their situations are made more complex by kin-state activism, reinforcing fear and distrust such as with Russian-speakers in the Baltic states or Hungarian-speakers cross the Pannonian Basin, in other places wider challenges to regional and geopolitical security distract from attention being granted to minorities, such as Palestinians in Israel, linguistic, religious, and cultural minorities in Ukraine, Muslims in Myanmar, and many more. We also seek papers that examine the role of regional organisations, such as ASEAN and the EU, in this space.

Third, we invite explorations of connections between rapid technological advances (such as the expansion of data available and its dimensionality, the rise of AI and the penetration of digital identity infrastructures) and the recognition of ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. Linking technology with identities may carry both opportunities and significant risks, including optimisation of service delivery on the basis of highly dimensional data, while entrenching structural inequalities reproduced by algorithms and the exclusionary design of AI models. Coercive policing and community monitoring may directly influence minorities' ability to enjoy their rights.

Finally, we anticipate that some reflection on the quality of democratic institutions, ranging from those committed to liberal equality with firm institutional safeguards to those with formalised yet ritualised electoral competition, could help with mapping out challenges for pluralistic societies. In regional contexts, and increasingly so globally, states often prioritise order over rights, securitising and marginalising claims for genuine inter-group and inter-personal equality. Can constitutional arrangements, such as consociational mechanisms, legislative quotas or federal structures help convert security-driven exclusion into socio-political inclusion? Investigating such intersections helps explain when and how plural societies can move from 'siege' to stability, and democratising states balance majority rule with minority protections.

Hosted by the Institute for Minority Rights and the Center for Autonomy Experience of Eurac Research, the colloquium invites constructive dialogue on the challenges minorities face in changing geopolitical, national and regional socio-cultural, religious, economic and political environments. In the ideal setting of Bolzano/Bozen, South Tyrol – a region known internationally for an autonomy arrangement that has ensured minority-majority coexistence and peaceful power-sharing between three linguistic groups – participants will be able to reflect on a wide range of topics including language policy, autonomy and consociational governance, cultural heritage in plural societies, the origins and effects of structural inequalities, and the complex interplay between commitment to diversity and the need for social cohesion. By gathering scholars, practitioners, and policy-makers in this unique environment, the colloquium aims to foster critical reflection and forward-looking strategies to meet the mounting challenges that minorities face around the world today.

We invite proposals for individual paper contributions and/or panels that engage empirically, conceptually and normatively with relevant issues.

Proposals for papers should include contact details of the author(s), title and an abstract of no more than 200 words.

Panel proposals should include a minimum of three papers and a maximum of four; contact details for all paper-givers, the discussant and chair; the panel title and a short description of the panel of no more than 200 words; individual paper titles and short abstracts of no more than 200 words each.

The deadline for the electronic submission of paper and panel proposals is 10 January 2026. Notices of acceptance will be sent out during the week of 2 February. Proposals should be submitted online at https://form.jotform.com/tagarin/colloquium-bolzano.

For more information on the hosts of the 2026 colloquium, please see https://www.eurac.edu/en/institutes-centers/institute-for-minority-rights and https://www.autonomyexperience.org/en/home-english/.

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